The holiday season is upon us: the leaves have transitioned from their summery yellow and green to warm autumnal orange and red, festive lights and spooky decor line the streets, and the weather has begun to cool, bringing dewy mornings and foggy evenings. On Halloween night, buckets of Kit Kats, M&Ms, and Almond Joys (that nobody wants) will be prepared for trick-or-treaters. However, by the end of the night, most houses have nowhere near empty buckets.
Growing up, Halloween was always my favorite holiday. The orange and purple lights, scary movies, and pumpkin-flavored baked goods were all a part of the fun. However, these fun fall novelties can be enjoyed any day of October. The main event was always dressing up as my favorite characters and cruising around the neighborhood with a bucket of candy bigger than my head. Recently, kids haven’t been as interested in trick-or-treating, but I think that more kids should rediscover the magic of this nostalgic annual event.
As the years have progressed, fewer and fewer kids are partaking in this festive way to celebrate the spookiest night of the year. In an article by USA Today, a poll of 17,000 respondents reported that 74% had fewer trick-or-treaters come to their houses in 2023 than in previous years. Sadly, the once-beloved traditions of All Hallows Eve have been inching closer and closer to their death beds.
Less houses are passing out candy to trick-or-treaters because the common belief is that Halloween has become too big of an expense. Decorations are often what people are dropping the most money on. In recent years, the biggest decoration craze has been gigantic skeletons and inflatables. As it turns out, both of these can be priced very highly. The heavily coveted 12 ft lawn skeleton from Home Depot retails for $699! There are more “reasonable” options at Walmart, but their 5 ft skeleton is still $140. As for the inflatables, the initial cost is cheaper, but they use a significant amount of energy. Most people can’t justify spending that much money on decorations, but there are lots of alternatives that are on-trend, and you won’t get a scary bank statement by the end of the month.
One thing that my family likes to do is to string up just a few lights to bring attention to our house. Then, we put up decorations that don’t exude energy but are still within a reasonable price range. Target is a great place to buy decorations like fake spider webs, tombstones, or even just some plastic pumpkins, and you can use the same decorations each year.
Anything that will make your house look a little festive will attract trick or treaters. When I was little, one of my favorite parts of trick-or-treating was looking at all of the houses illuminated by pretty lights and other decor. By promoting decorating, hopefully more people will get outside Halloween night to walk around and look.
Intense safety precautions have been put in place on Halloween because lots of parents are growing concerned over the dangers of Halloween. The reasons for these recent restrictions are understandable, but I believe that it is still very possible to have a fun and safe time.
One thing that parents fear is candy that has been tampered with. There have been rumors of razor blades or harmful substances found in candy. However, there are very few true cases of this. In my own experience, I have never found anything that wasn’t supposed to be in my candy.
A simple fix to this worry is to check the candy before eating it.
Most other concerns are health-related and they’ve increased post COVID-19. Data collected by NORC at the University of Chicago found that in 2019 around 24% of families took their kids trick-or-treating. During quarantine in 2020, near the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this number was cut in half and only 12% went door-to-door. Now, three years later in 2023, the number of trick-or-treaters still hasn’t recovered.
Health shouldn’t be a big concern regarding Halloween because all of the candy is packaged. If you are extremely worried about the germs, then it can be a good idea to bring sanitizer with you. Also there isn’t more of a risk of getting sick on Halloween than any other night of the year.
Halloween was such an important event in my childhood, and every year, I looked forward to it. I think that by taking these precautions everyone can have a fun time, and the magic of Halloween will be restored by bringing the most important tradition back to life.
